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Windows User Experiments With Linux for 10 Days
An anonymous reader writes "Clarence Ladson over at Flexbeta decided to kick Windows to the curb for 10 days in an experiment to find out just how hard it would be to 'quit cold turkey' and move entirely to Linux. It's amazing how many day-to-day operations require the inadvertent use of Windows in our daily lives."
I don't use microsoft at home or at work. the last time I used windows was when I fixed my fiance's laptop. MacOSX at home, Linux at work. Bada bing.
Which games are those? I migrated to Linux a year ago for my sole desktop PC and rarely look back. I play the following on a regular basis in Linux:
World of Warcraft (emulated, faster)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (native, faster)
Neverwinter Nights (native, slower)
Warcraft 3 (emulated, slower)
The only game that has tempted me back towards Windows lately has been Battlefield 2, and that should be working in Linux soon.
I cannot truly reply to the article considering it was /.'ed before any reply was posted, but I have been part of a trial of Linux workstations at work. Our sysadmins are Windows folks, but with a good original image, I can't see a Linux transition being that hard.
.lwp or .123 format, but it has not been a big issue.
I haven't had many problems at all. Our main issue was that we still use a native OS/2 application, and because we have ditched OS/2 we need a remote desktop connection to a Windows box to then launch Virtual PC and our OS/2 app. Not the easiest and lightest of setups, but it works.
We need Wine for a few apps too, but they run fine under it. Sometimes I'll get Lotus Word Pro or 1-2-3 documents that I cannot return in their original format as Open Office won't let me save in
(If after all those hints you cannot guess what company I work in, you really need to think harder...)
Anyhow, maybe I wasn't sure after home use how easily Linux could be considered in an office environment, but our main problem really is some intranet pages being designed for IE only.
I eventually got the first page of that article to load, which leads me to think the author may be criticising how difficult it can be to get everything working - but if you have built a solid image, there is no reason why Linux should be any more difficult to use than Windows.
Funny that you'd mention that, as COM and DLLs are just a weird hack for implementing shared libraries and IPC (inter-process communications.) *nix has had that functionality since the mid-eighties.
About five years later, Windows 3.0 was released. :)
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
That's funny. I worked at Microsoft a few years ago (2000-ish).
I remember the bank tech coming in one day to service the ATM machine in the cafeteria. As it booted up, you could see the OS/2 logo. I asked him about it and he kinda mumbled that he tried not to let people see that.
I keep trying Linux, and keep moving back to windows. Each time I go Linux I stay there for longer and longer. Until I do stupid things and Linux wont boot because I tried to re-compile the kernal without reading any docs.
The thing that I've got out of it though, is that my windows environment is becoming more and more open-source-filled. I cant believe I was so used to using WinZip and pressing "Accept" everytime I wanted to open a zip file, etc.
Whenever I look for any kind of program now I go straight to sourceforge. I only started doing this because of my rounds of Linux using.
Eventually, Ill master Linux and never come back. But until then I think Ive got it pretty good with the "best of both worlds"
I haven't needed windows for many years now, however my girlfriend does. I run KDE with a seperate user called "windows" which runs qemu with WinXP full screen on login. She chooses to use her standard KDE login most of the time, but some of her uni cds are windows only.
.NET (which I never bothered to do before because of the effort of buying another machine or partitioning etc etc).
:)
QEMU is so good, it not only does her needs, but I've started playing around with
The speed is excellent, it works with the CD, SAMBA to the host machine (home drives) and sound...it's got everything we want...plus, running full screen on a seperate login it's just like if you partitioned the drive except that you can switch in real time using KDE 'switch user' feature and share data between the two by making your home drive a samba network drive in windows.
Linux and Windows finally operating seemlessly together, thank you QEMU
Over the last few years I've read some comments on slashdot about schools teaching linux, and I've just now had an idea that I think might be practical.
I remember in elementary school, once a week or so my class would be herded into the computer lab to learn how to use a word processor and spreadsheet app on the school's Apple IIe computers. I spent a lot more time playing Oregon Trail and playing around with BASIC on those computers, but I definitely learned the underlying concepts about using a word processor or spreadsheet, and was able to really easily transition to Wordstar 5 for DOS and later other apps.
It wasn't so much about typing a letter to the editor or whatever we were doing back then, as it was about being comfortable accomplishing a certain set of steps with a computer.
I wonder, then, if you had 30 third grade students in a computer lab, 10 using Windows, 10 using Mac OS, and 10 using Linux (perhaps Red Hat? whatever is dominating is probably wisest), could you ask them all to accomplish essentially the same task? Of course, I mean that they should rotate to each machine, although not necessarily during a single class session, and be exposed to all the machines.
Any teachers out there? Does this idea make any sense?
I have traditionally been a windows user. Up until I got sick of all the b.s. that came along with it. I installed Slackware (my favorite server distro) on my desktop and have been running with it for 18months. I have even got my girlfriend into using the desktop (KDE). Yes there are some problems with Office documents and features etc But for the majority of people power point presentations etc are not something that needs doing on a regular basis and there are some excellent html/java slide show creators that can do very similar jobs. Taking all that on board YES there is a long way for KDE/Gnome and the others to improve on the desktop but at the same time it has come along way and for the majority of internet users it would have more than enough features and software for average joes and jills at home browsing and chatting...
You do not need windows to play games. You may need windows to play games designed to run on Windows though. But if you're dumping windows, you no longer have a need for those games.
In other words, "if you don't have any need for Windows, you no longer have any need for Windows". Very profound, I'm sure.
Clue time: anyone citing Windows games as a reason for sticking with Windows probably thinks they still have a need for those games. So, uh, what was your point again?
I'm not supporting Redmond or any of the companies that butter their bread using that damnable product.
Good grief, I can hear the froth bubbling around your mouth from here. Get a grip, man. Windows is not the work of the devil: it's an operating system. Possibly not the best operating system in the world, but not in any way evil. Look, I use it all day and never once have I smelt sulphur or heard the screams of the damned coming from my computer speakers. It hasn't even murdered my family yet. All in all, it's doing pretty well for something you seem to view as the embodiment of Antichrist.
I'm also interested to know how you manage to survive while not supporting any company that uses Windows. For example, that pretty much rules out buying food from anyone apart from the Amish.
I think you've gone a bit too far there, the reason why I and a lot of the Open Source community dislike Microsoft (although not to the point of hatred, admittedly I use Windows when there isn't a viable Linux alternative) is the simple fact that I completely disagree with their business practices.
;)
Bill Gates, regardless of the wonderful things he's done for AIDS research and the like (regardless of his motives, he could have chosen any crappy project, but this was a smart move) he and his company are complete arseholes when it comes to code. If a programme is buggy, there are two choices - you can fix it yourself, or you can get someone else to fix it. Noone else is going to fix it unless it benefits them, and the vast majority of the time, it never benefits Microsoft. Without access to the source code, I can't fix those bugs, I can't make the product better for me, and I don't have access to something I have not just a moral right to, but what should be a legal right to as well. It's akin to buying a house and not being able to change the light bulbs or put an extension on without asking the original architect for his permission.
Microsoft aren't also bastards from a software source code point of view, but also in dodgy business practices, mainly involving bribing schools (ok, harsh word, but that's how I see it) with free software to use their products, and not teach the kids about software alternatives.
What about the purchase of companies who are potential competitors in a field (such as the legendary Amiga programme, Bars and Pipes) and then to shut them down, just so that the competition has no way of surviving - regardless of its superior technology (it took more than 5 years for MS to catch up with Amiga)
Microsoft also seem to be bastards when it comes to software patents, but that's for another discussion
Believe it or not, Microsoft will fail. The only way MS will fail is if someone brings out a better product, and if MS buy those products before they reach commercial success, then they win. But if those products can't be bought, or are restricted development due to the GPL - they lose. The GPL is fairly shitty, but I prefer it tenfold to what we have atm.
It is my understanding that Microsoft will ONLY give schools "free" software if they agree not to use software from other vendors, including Linux and other free and/or open source software.
I don't think that should be even legal.
I am a business professional. My desktop is 100% Linux (Ubuntu) and has been for a long time. I've never bothered to tell anyone I was using Linux, and as far as I'm aware no one has any clue. My pain level is zero. (Actually, my pain level is "negative," since from time to time tasks crop up like mass file renaming, which I get done in a few moments but the Windows users take hours and hours to do. Manually. One file at a time. For hundreds and hundreds of files. THAT is pain.)
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
Unfortunately, this is actually a reality in many countries, my own (the Netherlands) included.
You see, copyright law states that artists can refuse others the right to "deface" their artwork. Since architects have somehow turned from engineers to artists, they have the right to prevent their customers from making adjustments to their buildings.
Thankfully, many architects don't use this right, but the ones with the biggest egos (the really expensive ones) do. My university built a huge library a couple of years ago, which cost them a couple dozen millions of euros. Turns out they're not even allowed to rearrange the bloody "designer" desks!
I can't read the article at the moment seeing as their database doesn't appear to be able to cope with the Slashdotting but simply put, switching over is a nightmare.
Before all the BSD/Linux/OSX users jump me, let me tell you I'm desperate to get off Microsoft software, however, I can't very well dump 10 years of computing experience and instantaneously learn 10 years of FreeBSD.
My 1 year plan of attack:
1) Start to use Open Source software on Windows
2) Move exclusively to Open Source software on Windows
3) Move over to FreeBSD
Right now, I'm almost at stage 2. I'm waiting for a decent calendaring solution and I'm good to go*.
Everything else I use is now Open Source. It's been a painful 8 months but I'm working hard to give this a chance.
Now, the interesting part comes when you start to move over to a new OS. It's a complete nightmare!!!
I've heard a lot of people say it's as easy as putting in the RHL disk and clicking a few buttons and I agree. It is, so long as you're only wanting to do office grade work!
Don't get me wrong, I can install RHL, Debian, FreeBSD and run it fine so long as I only want to use the web, send email, create some artwork, etc but if I want to install PHP, Apache, PostgreSQL, Postfix, BIND and connect to a network (Samba) then I'm going to be here for a good few months just to get it working (properly and securely - not hope-and-pray).
Once I've got it working, should something go wrong, I'm down for another day/week if I don't understand how things work.
I am an Open Source advocate but I don't for one second believe a switch-over is going to be easy and neither should anyone else here.
What we need to do is manage people's expectations of moving over. If you think it'll take less than 6 months to do the switch, then you're probably not a developer and I imagine most of the Windows users here do some form of development.
Anyway, enough of the ranting. I look forward to the day I can finally switch over.
Here's a big thank-you to all the Open Source developers who work so hard to give us our freedom!
* I still have to use IE for work to make websites 'work'.
A hundred and twenty characters ought to be enough for anyone...
Indeed.
And if the submitter of the story had taken the trouble to read it, he might have noticed that nearly every link supplied points at Microsoft. Even the link supposedly referring to OpenOffice.org points at a Microsoft propaganda article.
You're exactly right. The iPod uses an internal database for the song and file structure (the files are really just hidden if you use disk mode on a mac, but apparently are visible in windows). The reason for this is so that when you are browsing the songs from the browse mode on the iPod, it doesn't have to index the files every time, instead it just grabs a quick list from the database that the computer generated. This provides a much smoother, and faster user experience on the iPod.
If you've ever used a Rio or other device that merely drops files on, browse around and notice how much slower the listings show up. This is because it is grabbing a file list every time you change menus.
I hate sigs...
I went through that cycle too. My main system always ran Windows. I'd set up an old system to run Linux, play with it for a few weeks, then eventually stop using it. I did this probably three times. First Red Hat, then Slackware every time thereafter. About two years ago I finally decided to just switch for good. My current PC at the time had some hardware problems that caused the display to appear scrambled in both DOS and Linux, so I spent about $500 on a new Dell no-OS PC to run Linux. They cost more than with Windows nowadays, but I'm pretty sure they cost the same back then.
After the system arrived, I installed my favorite distro slackware on it. When I tried using it as a desktop, many programs under KDE crashed very often and predictably. The crashes went away when I switched to another distro. I tried several. There was still one problem left. Anything that used OpenGL with hardware acceleration would crash the system within a minute, on every distro I tried. This problem went away with my switch to Ubuntu Hoary last year when it was still in development, and my system has been pretty stable ever since, due to bug fixes that came with their switch from XFree86 to X.org. I have yet to find a development environment for Linux that I really like, but it hasn't really stopped me.
I use both Windows and Linux at work, but at home my Windows PC has collecting dust, and its keyboard is usually buried under a thick pile of paper, wrappers, equipment, and soda cans. At work, we're pushing towards open source mostly due to increasingly unjustifyable licensing costs, and sometimes due to security issues or simply superior software quality. There's only one program left that we're unable to migrate. A third party ERP system can lock a company into Windows desktops for many years.
I've never managed to render a Linux system unbootable, short of hardware failure. Even then, at work we have a Linux server that's been running smoothly with BAD RAM while we wait for the replacement to arrive in the mail. Linux can be configured to work around the bad parts, which allowed me to bring the failed production server back up within the hour. Another non-production server lost both hard disks in the same week, which would have gone unnoticed if I haven't checked the logs because it just kept working, having enough cache to serve requests from ram. After that happened I've been checking logs and hard disk temperature twice a day now with a simple script that polls all our servers at once. I'm not an IT person, but somehow my programming job has gradually expanded to include absolutely everything that nobody else knows how to do, whether or not I knew how to do it either.